BREWSTER — Cape Cod's future marine biologists met for the first time Saturday.

Some were as young as 5 and 6. Others were 17. A few came from as far as Plymouth.

But all 20 in the group had two things in common — they were girls, and they love, love, love sharks.

The first meeting of The Gills Club, sponsored by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy, was held at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History. Moms, dads and little sisters and brothers were on hand, too.

The club was formed to help girls meet female marine biologists and learn more about sharks, and to empower the girls to take leadership roles and inspire others with their passion for sharks.

Stacey Geezil of Plymouth brought her daughter, Brigid, 8, who really loves sharks. Libby Geezil, 6, had come along, too, even though she favors seals. They were buying "Smart About Sharks" T-shirts before the club meeting started.

"We love everything about the ocean," Stacey Geezil said of her family.

The nonprofit conservancy evolved from the ideas of co-founder Cynthia Wigren. Wigren, who has an undergraduate degree in wildlife management and an MBA., spent 12 years working for online trading companies in the energy industry, but she quit to establish the conservancy last year.

The conservancy promotes research, education and public safety in relation to great white sharks. Last year the nonprofit paid for plane and boat expenses and acoustic tag expenses needed to support the tracking of great white sharks along the Cape's coast by state shark expert Greg Skomal.

Skomal and area fishermen have tagged nearly 40 sharks since 2009.

The Gills Club idea arose as the nonprofit held fundraising events for Skomal's research.

Very young girls would approach Wigren expressing their enthusiasm about sharks and about meeting Skomal.

"It struck me that it's been these little girls who have been super-excited about sharks," she said.

That excitement led Wigren to ponder the lack of women in the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics fields and how she could connect girls interested in sharks with young women who have made a career out of that kind of passion.

About 30 female scientists from around the world will participate in the club, with the help of computer technology. On Saturday, the girls met Ashley Stoehr, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, via a short video recording projected on a screen at the museum.

"We're hoping that these connections are going to inspire this next generation," Wigren said.

The conservancy is partnering with the Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Fla., to establish a second club as well.

Saturday's meeting lasted a little over an hour. Conservancy education coordinator Marianne Long gave a short talk about shark teeth and senses, explaining the number of rows of teeth different sharks have and how smelling is a shark's best sense.

Then the girls, with help from parents and volunteers, got to choose shark teeth and make a necklace, tested their own sense of smell at a "smelling station," identified the sensory systems of a shark and recorded their research in a lab book.

Bob Fiske of East Dennis was standing to the side as his daughter Paige, 11, who attends sixth grade at Mattacheese Middle School in West Yarmouth, worked her way through the lab activities. Paige's science teacher knew that she liked sharks and had suggested The Gills Club to her. She's seen sharks only on television and at SeaWorld. But Bob Fiske joked that they have long-standing ties to Martha's Vineyard, where the 1975 thriller "Jaws" was filmed.

The interest on the Cape about sharks is very high, said Teresa Izzo, program coordinator for the museum. The museum's "Shark Science — Up Close and Personal" exhibit last year, with a full-size replica of a shark tank, was visited by nearly 50,000 people, Izzo said. The museum is planning another shark exhibit this year.